


I Don't Hate You

by LuthienLuinwe



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Gunshot Wounds, Non-Graphic Violence, Stabbing, Swearing, fear toxin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-20
Updated: 2018-05-20
Packaged: 2019-05-09 11:57:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14715596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LuthienLuinwe/pseuds/LuthienLuinwe
Summary: Three times Dick patched up Jason, and one time he returned the favor.





	I Don't Hate You

“You should have come to me sooner, or to a goddamn hospital,” Dick shook his head. Jason wasn’t sure what he’d expected when he’d shown up at his predecessor’s Bludhaven apartment clutching his stomach in his blood-stained shirt. 

“Yeah, you know that thing where I’m legally dead?” Jason snapped and swore when Dick poured some antiseptic onto the angry wound. “You could warn a guy, you know.”

“Do you want my help or not?” Dick glared, and Jason just rolled his eyes. “Jesus fuck,” he muttered as he stitched Jason up. He knew Dick was right. He should have come sooner. But he hadn’t realized the wound had been that deep. It was only when the slight delirium and alarmingly high fever had decided to show up that he’d even considered it.

“I’ve had worse,” Jason said. He had meant it to be funny, but even he could hear the dark undertones that had slipped into his voice. He hissed when Dick started another stitch.

“Did you kill the guy?” Dick asked, and Jason just glared at him.

“Does it matter?”

“It does to me.”

“You know, it’s amazing. Sometimes you open your mouth and B comes out.”

“Fuck you,” Dick responded, and Jason cried out when he got another stitch. It was like Dick was being rough on purpose. But where else could he have gone to? The hospital was out, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to show up at the manor, not after his latest blowup with the Bat.

“Truth hurts, Dickiebird,” Jason propped himself up on his elbows once Dick was done. “You’d die for him,” he paused a moment. “Oh, that’s right, you already played dead for him.” It was a low blow. He didn’t care.

Dick glared, the kind of glare that went straight into Jason’s soul. “Get the fuck out.”

“Whatever,” Jason rolled his eyes and grabbed his things. “Not like I wanted to stay with Batsy’s little bitch anyway.”

“What is your fucking problem, Jason?” Dick snapped, and Jason smirked. Dick had never had a good hold on his temper, and Jason was more than willing to press all the right buttons to make it come out.

“He doesn’t give a shit about you. About any of you,” Jason said. “You’re lying to yourself if you think he does. Too bad it just took me dying to figure that one out for myself.”

* * *

He was curled up on Dick’s couch. The fear toxin antidote was slowly starting to take effect, but he was still shaky, and remnants of the hallucinations still haunted him. A laugh here. The sound of an explosion there. Flashes of green everywhere. He was surprised Dick had taken him back to the apartment. Had the roles been reversed, Jason would have left him in the street. 

But that was how it always seemed to work out. Jason would say something awful. Dick would lose his temper. Red Hood would get hurt doing something stupid, and Nightwing would drag his sorry ass into the apartment to take care of him, and not say a damn word about it to Batman.

“Here,” Dick tossed Jason a bottle of water, and Jason gratefully drank it, something that proved to be more than a simple task thanks to his shaking hands. “Want to talk about it?”

“The hell do you think?” Jason glanced over at him. He didn’t have enough energy left to snap or make a snarky retort. “I’m sorry,” he said after a long moment. “About what happened last time.”

“No you’re not,” Dick responded, and Jason was glad that he didn’t sound angry about it. Though sometimes Jason wondered if Dick had any emotions at all, other than the ones he thought everyone else wanted to see at least.

Jason carefully sat up, wincing when he pulled at the still-healing stitches on his stomach. “Thanks,” he muttered, meaning it for once in his life. “For not leaving me out there.”

“Fear toxin’s nasty,” Dick shrugged. “I haven’t dealt with half the shit you have and I can barely handle it. I wasn’t going to leave you there. You don’t have to keep avoiding us, you know. B misses you.”

“B can go to hell,” Jason said and grabbed his helmet. 

“You can’t stay mad at him forever, Jay.”

“Fucking watch me.”

* * *

“You know,” Dick began. “One day we’re going to have to meet up in a situation where you’re not half-dead on me.” Jason mumbled something in reply, but it was incoherent at best. He was slumped over the older vigilante’s shoulder, and he was pretty sure his attempts at helping navigate through the sewers were doing more harm than good.

He’d taken a bullet through the shoulder. Nothing he couldn’t handle. He’d be out of commission for a few days, then back to normal. And then he’d been shot again in the side, and really things had just gotten worse from there.

“God, why did you have to go off and pick a fight with Black Mask?” Dick groaned, and Jason had muttered something he couldn’t understand himself. God, how much blood had he lost? “You’re lucky that bullet didn’t go through your head. And that I got there before Bruce. You need a hospital.”

“Dead,” Jason reminded and shifted more of his weight onto Dick. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could stay standing, supported or otherwise. He could have cried with relief when they finally got to one of Dick’s safehouses. He was glad to see the first Robin hadn’t entirely given up his Gotham roots.

He groaned when Dick dropped him onto the bed and watched half-conscious as he cut his shirt open to get to the wounds. He made a mental note to thank Alfred for forcing them to learn some intensive first aid.

“Motherfucker,” he said through gritted teeth as Dick dug the first bullet out. Dick muttered something, probably an apology, but Jason was too focused on not screaming to hear it properly.

“This is going to hurt,” Dick warned, and Jason had to bite his tongue to keep from crying out when he stated applying the antiseptic.

“I fucking hate you,” he muttered and shut his eyes tightly. It was a lie, of course. He’d be dead without Dick and he knew it. But he wasn’t going to forsake his pride and reputation, even if Dick was the one currently making sure he didn’t die again.

“Sure you do,” Dick laughed and started stitching him up.

In their fucked up family, it was the closest they’d get to an ‘I love you.’

* * *

“Okay, so this is bad,” Jason said, trying to keep the panic out of his voice. Dick had gotten into a scuffle with Deathstroke and had shown up at Jason’s hideout completely drained and covered in blood. Maybe one day they’d laugh at the irony of the role reversal. Definitely not that day though.

He rushed Dick inside and forced the man’s shirt off, quickly looking over the wound. He had a nasty gash on his side. “Losing your touch, Dickiebird. Thought you’d throw him off with all your acrobatic shit.”

“I’m twenty-two,” Dick yelped when Jason started to clean the room. “That’s like, ancient in acrobat years.” 

Jason nodded and kept focused on the task at hand. Dick was losing a lot of blood, and Jason needed to keep him conscious and talking. “Surprised you didn’t go to Alfred.”

“Fight with B,” Dick muttered. Of course, Jason thought. He wondered what the latest argument had been. Lately it seemed like all Bruce and Dick did was argue with each other. “Said I kept making stupid mistakes.” Jason just glanced at Dick’s side before making eye contact with him again. “Shut up.”

“Didn’t say anything,” Jason responded and stated to stitch him up. He finished the stitches and stepped back. “You know the drill. Lay low for awhile. I’m going to be pretty pissed if I have to redo those.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Dick muttered and Jason helped him sit up. “Hey Jay?” he asked after a long moment. Jason blinked and crossed his arms, nodding for him to continue. “For what it’s worth, I don’t think you’re a bad person.”

“Hey Dickhead?” Jason asked in response. “I don’t think you are either.”


End file.
